Watch a physician perform an endoscopy using coherent optic fibres to examine a patient's interior
The fibre-optic endoscope, composed of multiple hairlike glass rods, acts as a bendable periscope during a live-action procedure.
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Transcript
NARRATOR: Because fiber optics can carry information around corners, they can be used to look in places previously accessible only by surgery. The surgeon is using a fiber-optic instrument called an endoscope, which enables him to see these images.
The doctor controls the instrument from one end. At the other end, a set of fibers passes light from an outside source to the inside of the patient. A second set of fibers connects to a lens which passes images to a lens in the surgeon's eyepiece.
These are coherent optical fibers, bunches of fibers precisely aligned at both ends. By bunching many thousands of fibers together, it is possible to achieve an image without using an electronic camera. As long as the fibers at one end are aligned precisely the same as the fibers at the other, they act like a bendable periscope.
The doctor controls the instrument from one end. At the other end, a set of fibers passes light from an outside source to the inside of the patient. A second set of fibers connects to a lens which passes images to a lens in the surgeon's eyepiece.
These are coherent optical fibers, bunches of fibers precisely aligned at both ends. By bunching many thousands of fibers together, it is possible to achieve an image without using an electronic camera. As long as the fibers at one end are aligned precisely the same as the fibers at the other, they act like a bendable periscope.